In my previous post I referred to Kant’s “Categorical Imperative”. Here, let me entertain the following suggestion: That Kant made a big mistake.

Kant wrote a lot. If he was consistent in his thinking, that would mean that he wanted everyone to write a lot. Now since he lived several hundred years ago, Kant never had to face the prospect of having to read dozens, hundreds, thousands or even millions of volumes of text, with rarely one of them rising above the level of completely ephemeral blather (in my opinion, this is primarily due to how the coincidence of copyright law and mass production of printed paper had not yet taken its course into its swirling destiny of mind-numbing confusion). Had Kant ever envisioned the world we live in today, he would have probably immediately had a heart attack and died on the spot right then and there.

There is some irony to how my main goal in life is something quite similar to making this frightening, horrific vision actually come true — but to do so in a way that might satisfy the hopes and dreams of literate people everywhere. One of the main reasons why I am so focused on literacy is that I do not feel that publishing hogwash improves anything anywhere (except, perhaps, for people who “make money” that way — and in particular only insofar as it fulfills their financial obsession and their fetish for cash).

I think the vast majority of people use the Internet to waste time (they might, for example, visit websites like bored.com … that is, if they aren’t “hanging out” / “killing time” on facebook.com). The often play games, chat with people who happen to be online at the same time that they are online, or maybe engage in some sort of “gossip”-themed discussion.

I am different… — I am not online for entertainment. I want to make the world a better place — even (as I wrote just the other day) the best place possible by using information technology. I believe people can be educated to use such technologies reasonably and effectively to improve their lives and also other people’s lives.

When I was involved with the omidyar.net online community (an Omidyar Network project), I met many like-minded people, and I learned many things from many of these people. Now Omidyar Network is in the process of launching another project — this one is apparently more focused on journalism (mainstream media / news)… see e.g. this “guest post” by Sue Braiden.

I’ve also heard that Andy Carvin is going to join this new project — and I find that very inspiring. Andy was also part of the omidyar.net online community project, and I recall from my interactions with him there (and also later on other websites, such as twitter.com — which I no longer actively use) that he is very knowledgeable concerning online media, digital literacy, the so-called “digital divide” and so on.

I wish Pam and Pierre Omidyar much luck with this project. To find out more about it, please visit “First Look Media“.